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Topic: Supportive Spouses... (Read 2709 times)

I saw a similar thread (concerning parents) at anotheR Site... I'm just curious how the older set of the customizing crowd deals with supportive or less supportive spouses.

In my case, my wife just shakes her head. She thinks I'm crazy. Especially when I grab a left over piece of plastic (for example a tic-tac box) and say, "Hmmm. I think I can use this for one of my 'projects'." I'm always scouring the house now for left over things I can use.

However, she is less enthusiastic when she see's the credit card bills from time to time. Since mid last year when I dove in full force to this hobby, my figure purchasing has seriously escalated. I'm certainly not in a position where we can't afford it but she still likes to get on my case. In the past, I've turned to selling a few customs on eBay to "off-set" the costs (in her mind). Bear in mind, I don't want to send this thread down the pros and cons of selling customs, I'm just providing an example of one way I've kept a sometimes less than enthusiastic spouse at bay.

All in all, she's as supportive as I can expect. I think she's glad I found a hobby that I enjoy so much (even if it is strange). I'm just curious other's experiences....

My wife is glad to see I have such a rewarding hobby. Sometimes she'll read through these forums and is astounded by the number of grown men whom participate in this hobby. After ROTS my wife asked me, " Now that they've finished the movies, will they stop making the figures?" I replied, I hope not." Not the answer she was hopeing for. In her mind money spent on toys is money wasted. She became a little more supportive when I started selling customs on ebay. A couple of extra bucks in the bank account always helps. The money I make on ebay helps support my hobby, but it is still an exspensive hobby, especially since I am an Army Builder. I would never put us under any kind of financial stress for a hobby. I make a good salary and it afords us a secure home life and an active social life. But my wife likes to tally up my debit purchases, and in her mind I know she's thinking, "That would have been a nice romantic weekend down in Key West". She also needs alot of attention. Sometimes when I'm working on a project and I know she's bored, I'll feel guilty. Besides she knows what to do if she really wants to get my attention I asked her to find a hobby, but nothing seemed to stick. The ony hobby she really enjoys is cooking. I, of course have a very critical palet, so I don't think her hobby is as rewarding as mine.

My wife is quite the same. She shakes her head and walks away. She does however halp with some of the finer detail on some of my projects, and I'm thinking of giving her a figure and some refrence picture and letting her have at it just to see what comes out. I too buy figures in excess..but I try to even it out by getting my older son some too...he's a big fan and wants to start customizing his stuff too...I may find some "junker" figs for him to start on for now. I usually have one or two projects a month that take up the entire month. I'm glad to see this thread for us 'older' guys...

Dre

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I find her attractive because she's a clinet and she sleeps above the covers....FOUR FEET above the covers!!

It's quite a blessing in my household... she understands I am a kid at heart, and to be honest I think that's one of the things she loves about me. So all seems well, at least 90% of the time, but there's only a 50% chance of that.

Mine gives me **** from time to time but not much... Of course my moolah ain't hers and visa versa. Changes after marriage I'm afraid for most, but I do my own thing for now. She buys me stuff too so she's an enabler but she looked at me with mouth agape the other day when I had a stack of Series 2 Battle of the Bulge figures to buy at WM... I felt like a douche but they were new and that's the series I've wanted since I started collecting that line.

For customizing, she's more or less just into poking fun at me for my totoise-esque pace. I buy something, she asks why, I tell her, and she laughs and says "you haven't finished that yet".

I then proceed to tell her about the driveway, the landscaping, the stucco work... It seems SOMETHING always is in the way of my customizing. I wonder what?

My g/f actually likes it that I have this hobby, which in all honesty is still only a couple of months old. What amazes her most is the small scale 3¾" figures are to work with. Especially when I go to such lengths as to make a D-ring and hook for a lightsaber hilt, haha! She also smiles when I tell her how I'm planning on making one figure out of "these legs and these arms and this head and bit of rubber band, yadayada".

My daughter is too young (11.5 months) to understand, but I think she will approve of my customs with an honest and genuine "duhduh"

So, your girl friend says she likes the hobby. Girl friends have a way of thinking everthing you do is great. Once you mary them they really let you know how they feel. I remember when we were planning our wedding. The EA Clone Trooper sets came out and I remeber her looking at the bill and saying "Thats like 2 of our guest". By the way did any of you guys watch "The 40 Year Old Virgin" w/ the wife. Mine had a good laugh at my exspence when the part that had him painting his figures came on.

Well, its good to see that no one has been kicked out of the house for excessive customizing. It sounds like everyone has some level of "acceptance" of the hobby! I haven't seen 40 yo virgin yet but I have heard about that part. My brother and his wife saw it and laughed hysterically thinking of me...

I'm still curious to hear from some of our lady customizers to see how their male spouses react...

I have to say, my wife (of 17 years) doesn't mind at all. She knows I won't spend money on hobbies if it would cause us trouble. She's just glad I have a hobby that lets her know where I am and that I'm not off getting into some trouble.

She tells me they are 'cute' and loves to poke at me by calling them "babies".

my husband is very supportive and he helps engineer something on just about every custom that i do which is cool. he leaves the painting to me and i leave the fabrication to him. i think we make a really good team.

my husband joe is always saving little bits & pieces of plastic and things too. we have tons of those plastic containers that you are supposed to put fishing hooks in (i think) but ours are full of interesting little items lol. i call them the parts bins.

we also make custom lightsaber hilts from time to time too, so all kinds of cool found objects from the parts bins make their way onto lightsabers too

i just wish we had more time for customizing. our other hobby of repairing and modifying our cars takes a good chunk of time (not pimp my ride style - we also do weekend auto racing). of course i can never forget the endless parade of home improvements too - ugh.

40 yo virgin is a fun movie and my friends all thought of my husband & me whenever he is painting the figures in the movie. its playing on hbo currently if ya'll have that take the time to watch it.

My wife is very supportive about the customizing as long as I don't damage the tables with cuts, paint or liquid plastic. She thinks its better than me buying every single new hasbro figure. (probably because I can only turn out one or two a month)

My wife tries to be supportive and has moments where she is but she also goes to the polar extreme and gets quite angry. I would say she really hates or has hated my Star Wars collecting/customizing and my other hobby following UK basketball.

We had a horrible flooding incident in the Star Wars room just before the 4th of July where she went off the deepend. It was fixed in a week but for that week, it was stressful getting around. Even I have come to the conclusion that one can have enough stormtroopers. If you have a legion, you don't need, or rather I don't need 5 legions to be create my dioramas.

The artistic part is something she does respect but the volume of figures or having them out on display is a bit much too her based on our space. Of course it is wild kingdom on the porch with her plants.

I do think or expect that when we move from our apartment to a home with a basement it should be better. With a home that has a basement dedicated to my collection, she will have an upstairs living area Star Wars free. And I will have space to create my own galawy located far, far away.

Totally aside from this conversation...I love the site and appreciate the great artistic talent I have seen here. I will be shortly sharing some of my custom figures.